Mumbai: 99 per cent school students have access to education

Several students have migrated out of Mumbai, but are learning online. Representation pics

After months of struggle, schools across the city have worked around solutions to connect with about 99 per cent of students in the absence of in-person classes. Of the 6.32 lakh students, about 5.32 lakh attend online classes, while nearly 95,000 are connected to schools through offline initiatives, shows data collated by the BMC. Schools have now been allowed to reopen from next week for Std VIII to XII. Earlier this year, over 60,000 students were shown not connected to online schooling.
According to numbers gathered by the BMC's education department, a total of 4,448 students - about 0.7 per cent - are deprived of education as they are not able to connect with school, either online or through parent-teacher volunteers. Of these, 2,748 students have migrated out of the city. The data includes BMC as well as other schools in the city.

"The situation shows positive changes with many students being able to gain access to online learning. More so the number of those students deprived of education due to no access has reduced drastically with novel ways implemented by schools to reach out to their students such as parents and teachers volunteers who can reach out to children near their homes and help them study, solve doubts or even take a few lessons. This is seen especially in civic schools, as teachers are visiting their students' localities to help them study and ensure that they do not get out of the flow of education," said a BMC education department official. Of the 25,883 students who migrated from the city, only 2,748 are deprived of education as others are connected with schools through different modes.

The civic body's education department has also launched a new initiative to trace students who are lagging behind in academics. "The reasons here could vary but it should be our focus to bring them on a par with the knowledge they are expected to have in the grade they are studying in. Teachers are asked to take extra efforts to first identify such students, then with help from NGOs, a learning module is prepared to assist teachers in teaching these students who require coping up," said Raju Tadvi, BMC education officer.

4,448
No. of students who are deprived of education